It’s a common phrase these days as the number of cyclists continues to rise, particularly in the wake of Covid-19, the production of e-bikes, and the establishment of cycle trails around the country.
Brothers Mike and Paddy Maguire were on a mission to make it easy and enjoyable for cyclists to carry their gear while biking or e-biking, through their business Aeroe.
Covid-19 refocused the product design business, which was founded by their late father, Pat, who died of cancer in 2019, and they were making in-roads in international markets.
Wellington-based Paddy ditched his job as an architect this year to join his Dunedin-based brother full-time in Aeroe and Mike could not be happier. "He’s as passionate about this as me ... it’s really cool, there’s no-one else I’d rather be working with," he said.
Covid-19 had caused Aeroe’s market to increase as people were increasingly finding a love of cycling and the likes of e-bikes had widened the demographic of users.
"It’s a great shift for people, a great way to see New Zealand or Canada. We’re about making that easy for people," Mike Maguire said.
Aeroe was focused on six products, including the Spider Rear Rack which was designed to be compatible with both normal bikes and e-bikes. The aim was to build the Aeroe brand in its key markets of New Zealand, Australia, Germany, the United States and Canada.
Aeroe was now stocked in Torpedo 7 stores throughout New Zealand and it was working with the Trek bike brand in Australia which had its own stores.
An order was recently received from MEC in Canada, which was similar to Torpedo 7.
Such relationships were very beneficial as it helped spread the word to ensure that Aeroe became a brand in the market, with people starting to know about it, Mr Maguire said.
They needed to grow the brand in those markets before they looked at what else they could do, although there were also plans to launch bags designed specifically for commuting, such as laptop bags and backpacks.
Those markets they were targeting were "massive" and the key for Aeroe was to partner with big players in those markets. It felt like they were being taken seriously now and that they could build Aeroe into a "proper global company — if we do it right," he said.
Aeroe had a booth booked for the Sea Otter Classic in California this year, the largest cycling trade show in North America; and also Eurobike in Germany, the European showcase dubbed the biggest bike trade show in the world.
Mr Maguire was grateful for the support of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise which had connected Aeroe to its offices in Berlin and the Netherlands. There was also good support from local businesses, including Cycle World Dunedin.
The past couple of years had been "full on" and it had involved plenty of hard work. The Maguire brothers were inspired by their father who had "the talent and instinct for designing great stuff". "It’s that intangible X-factor Dad had ... he definitely had it," Mike said.
Aeroe was a small team; Mike — a former banker — worked from home in Dunedin while his brother worked from The Settlement, a shared office space in Wellington.
Engineer Phil Gallagher was also part of the team.
Keen cyclists, the brothers endeavoured to catch up every few months for a bike ride together and the next one they were planning to tackle was the Timber Trail in the North Island.
It was a good chance to catch up, have a bit of fun and ideas also arose "when you’re out doing fun stuff", he said.
